underdeveloped chick?

[yomama]

Quote:
All the chicks are the same age, hatched on March 8'th, . The EE are huge compared to her, but even the other Blue Andalusian I have seems to be growing twice as fast as her. I do notice that she naps a little more than the others do. I don't see her getting picked on at all. Even though I see her eating and drinking, I am going to pull her aside a handful of times a day and hand feed/water her myself. Thank for all the advice so far. I really hope she does make it, she is so cute and sweet. Not to mention, my only blue.

 

[NWChicks]

I have one that is a lot smaller than the others as well. We got a Russian Orloff, a Silver Wyandotte and a Gold Wyandotte on the same day from the same place and they all supposedly hatched around the same time. The RO and the SW are much larger than Peanut (the GW). Initially, Peanut would only drink and wasn't taking any food, I wasn't sure if she was being crowded out by the other two or if she just wasn't interested. I had read about people giving yogurt but I didn't have any. I do make my own kefir using whole milk so I mixed some of that into the chick crumbles and put it on a plate. They all turned into little Raptors!

Even Peanut who wasn't aggressive with the others went nuts! She will run right over the top of the other two trying to get at it and since she's small she can wiggle her way in whether they want her to or not! Go Peanut! lol Being the paranoid first time chicken owner that I am I have taken to weighing them. I figured even if she's smaller and developing slower if she's gaining weight steadily then she's doing ok. I officially weigh them on Monday's since that was the day they hatched on. Peanut is three weeks now and has quadrupled her weight in two weeks. Her feather development is still slower than the other two (they have full tails while she's just now getting hers, they have more fully developed wing feathers and are starting to feather out elsewhere while she's still behind them) but they are growing.

Mine are on organic chick crumbles with electrolytes in their water. I don't really give these guys treats other than the Kefir in the crumbles because I want them (esp. Peanut) to get as much of that as possible. They get a little plate of it every day and will go beserk when they see me by the door of the brooder. In fact, they tolerate me weighing them because they know right after that they get their treat.

Hopefully all our little runts will thrive and grow! I'm a sucker for the underdog (or in this case, chicken).